


From the Water and Back

by roguefaerie



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Families of Choice, Happy Ending, Miranda Barlow Appreciation, Miranda Barlow Lives, Multi, Polyamory, Queer Families, Sex Magic, Thomas Hamilton Lives, Water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22267339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguefaerie/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Miranda called James from the water and it's the best thing that's ever happened to them.
Relationships: Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26
Collections: Holly Poly 2019





	From the Water and Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Purpleyin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purpleyin/gifts).



Marriage to Thomas was like settling into warmth. There was a safety there that Miranda Barlow had never expected to find. Once she did, she knew that she could never let go, and would protect him at all costs. It was the best she could do in a cruel world. 

Thomas would not seek out someone like James no matter how much he might have need of such a connection. It would be Miranda's abilities that pulled James nearly from the sea as if she was from the sea herself. Perhaps she had not done it on purpose--that she would never really know for sure. And she was not sure how she would manage it all but she intended to, because it was something that they deserved, together and apart.

All three of them did, even if taking James back to the sea to stay was the only way.

This would not be a bad way to escape the life and pressures in the city. Stealing away on a ship, becoming a pirate in all ways had appealed to her since she was much younger. A far away dream, perhaps, but she knew at times she felt the waves under her skin like power, not knowing what had caused them but knowing the power was hers.

Once she was aware, there was nothing for her to do but use it for good, and so quietly and perhaps without really understanding the fine nuance of it all, she pulled in the circumstances that they needed all together, and from the sea came their James. 

He would be that which joined them all together, bringing Thomas a balm. There were moments then of deep calm, like she had never thought would come over her life, and her gratitude for the two of them only increased. 

When she was with the two of them she could feel her power redoubling, back and back again as if the moon were calling the tides from their triad, as if what they had found was balancing and strengthening what was already there. 

She could pass the power to them and watch the waves crest and fall for days, and there were not words then for all that the pair of them could do to amplify the innate power she had handed readily to them, but it was theirs to do with as they willed.

She was an opinionated sort and her opinion was that they should be free to be in love in whatever form that took as the tides rolled on and through them. For it to fall to her to cast eyes away from Thomas felt only natural to her. The fact was that she took more and more of this on as her duty as time went by, and she did it gladly. She was committed to them living the life they were meant to, with James in his rightful place in their family of choice, and Thomas at peace as he was meant to be.

She herself knew the call of what it meant to be other. To find comfort and family where least expected. After all, whether she and Thomas were happy or compatible had hardly ever mattered to anyone. It had simply come about because of deep understanding that had become protective, familial love.

She would be as loud as the surf if it was necessary to keep her little family secure.

She would protect them by any means necessary.

This did not mean that there were no moments of extreme uncertainty and stress. The odds had never been in their favor. Yet Miranda and James' determination to see Thomas well and safe would be unmatched, especially in a world that sought to keep him from living as himself. 

The power they wielded together was extraordinary, and love was around every corner, seeping out into the world on every breath between them.

They were a family built on determination and knowledge that together, they could be themselves.

***

They did not go to the sea, not at first. James made landfall and the sparks flew, the power shared, the first love was found on land, seemingly in full view. Yet it was Thomas who smiled once and called them both his sailors, and it was only barely half a joke.

She asked him if it had taken meeting James for him to finally wish to be a pirate, and that was when the tension broke and laughter, giddiness, followed them for the rest of the day, each in their own tasks yet smiling like teenagers again as they went about them.

It was James who could commandeer the ship, and again he proved essential to their love when they realized he had gone and procured the means and all that was left was for them to come with him.

Thomas ran to him and kept running to the water, finding his rightful place in the rigging like he had always been meant to live there, with the sea casting a fine spray.

"Ours," Thomas said, with a reverence that implied he had always needed this even if he had not known until that very moment.

At sea they did not have to hide, even amid a crew. They could enjoy every moment, relishing their togetherness.

There was no hiding anymore. There was only the reality of the three of them and their love for one another, the way the magic that was held between them could make everything sparkle with newness, an unmistakable presence.

Their balance as a triad kept the love alive, set against the power of the sea and they knew they had never been more at home. That they had never been more themselves. 

One day their family was made complete by the sea and now they had returned to it, magic in hand, unstoppable. Miranda never once regretted making a family in the way she had, learning the way James held them gently together until they could be well and truly free.


End file.
